_Monday, March 5th._--General cheers greeted Mr. CHAMBERLAIN'S announcement
that the Government of India had undertaken to pay the interest on a
hundred millions of war-debt, but when he proceeded to say that part of the
new revenue required would be obtained by an increase in the cotton duties
there was a notable cooling of enthusiasm among Members from Lancashire.
Mr. RUNCIMAN at once sounded the alarm on behalf of Manchester by asking if
there would be a corresponding excise duty on Indian cottons. "All India is
against it," replied Mr. CHAMBERLAIN, who is finding, as his father did
before him, how difficult it is to get Englishmen to "think imperially"
where their own particular trade is concerned.
There is no doubt that the FOOD CONTROLLER possesses a sense of judicial
humour. Complaints have been made of late that while the ordinary British
citizen was expected to confine himself to four pounds of bread per week
the pampered German prisoner, instead of getting less, was given nearly
three times that amount. Lord DEVONPORT has now approved a new dietary
scale for prisoners, under which the bread ration will be cut down to
sixty-three ounces, or just one ounce less than the allowance of the free
and independent Englishman. On the Army Estimates Mr. PRINGLE attacked the
Salonika Expedition with a vigour which must have greatly pleased the
Bulgar. By a curious lapse of memory, as Mr. CHURCHILL pointed out, he
omitted all reference to the position of M. VENIZELOS and our honourable
obligations to our Allies.
Mr. CHURCHILL was indeed more statesmanlike than he has been of late, His
"amphibious intervention" was on this occasion quite justified. There was
good sense in his warning that, while perseverance towards a definite
objective was a virtue, "perseverance with an eye on the past" was an
equally serious vice; and I hope it signifies a determination on his part
not to allow his brilliant future to be all behind him.
_Tuesday, March 6th._--Ever since the War began, Mr. SWIFT MACNEILL'S most
cherished ambition--second, of course, to his desire to quit Westminster
for College Green--has been to get the Dukes of CUMBERLAND and SAXE-COBURG
deprived of their British titles. He has worried three successive
Governments on the subject, and some time ago received a definite promise
that it should be dealt with. A further question regarding it stood in his
name to-day, but when he rose to put it Mr. GINNELL squeaked out, "May I
ask you, Mr. SPEAKER, what this House has to do with these family matters?"
Mr. MACNEILL, of course, like most of his countrymen, has royal blood in
his veins, but nevertheless did not seem pleased with the allusion.
Further protests against the mutilation of the Dardanelles Report were made
by Sir WALTER ESSEX, Sir CHARLES HOBHOUSE, and Sir JOHN JARDINE. Free
disclosure to all Members of Parliament, and no preferential treatment of
party-leaders, was their demand. Mr. BONAR LAW manfully resisted their
assaults, and the SPEAKER declined to accept a motion for the adjournment.
A word from Mr. ASQUITH would no doubt have quelled the storm, but as one
of the favoured few who are to receive the full Report he felt himself, I
suppose, precluded from saying it. The late Mr. LABOUCHERE would probably
have suggested that the difficulty should be solved, on the analogy of a
famous edition of MARTIAL, by issuing the Report as expurgated, together
with an appendix containing all the omitted passages. But there is no
LABOUCHERE in the House to-day--more's the pity.
What Mr. HOGGE does not know about pensions is not worth knowing. He has
already made havoc of more than one Government scheme, and unless he has an
official ring put in his nose he will evidently do his best to upset the
latest of them. On the whole, however, Mr. BARNES'S exposition of the new
pension scheme was well received. Though not unduly generous--that would be
impossible in the circumstances--it will at least, as Capt. STEPHEN GWYNN
put it, "enable us to look disabled men in the face."
_Wednesday, March 7th._--Lords SHEFFIELD and PARMOOR are much disturbed
because British subjects have been interned without trial, and had to be
reminded by the LORD CHANCELLOR that there was a war in progress, and that
it was better that individuals should lose a portion of their liberties
than that the community should lose them altogether.
A full appreciation of this truth might have prevented the Irish
Nationalists from seeking at this moment to get Home Rule out of cold
storage. If the attempt had to be made Mr. T.P. O'CONNOR was not perhaps
the best person to make it. For over an hour he meandered through the more
melancholy episodes of Irish history, from the Treaty of Limerick to the
Easter Monday rebellion, rather in the manner of one of those film-dramas
of which he is now the Censor. I am afraid his endeavour to prove that
Ireland is not "an irrational country, demanding impossible things," was
not entirely convincing.
It failed, at any rate--although backed by a brief appeal by Major WILLIE
REDMOND, which touched the House by its manifest sincerity--to convince the
PRIME MINISTER that this was the accepted time for plunging Ireland once
more into civil strife. Those parts of Ireland that wanted Home Rule could
have it to-morrow if they wished; neither he nor any other British
statesman would force the people of N.E. Ulster under a government they
disliked. When those two facts were thoroughly understood there might be a
chance of a settlement.
[Illustration: A TRUE IRISHMAN.
_Mr. John Redmond_. "I'VE FINISHED WITH THE BRITISH EMPIRE--
--EXCEPT, BEDAD, THAT WE'RE GOING TO BEAT THE BOSCH!"]
Mr. JOHN REDMOND, refusing to continue what he regarded as a futile and
humiliating debate, marched out of the House at the head of his supporters.
This manoeuvre, rather effective in the Gladstonian era, did not much
impress the House on this occasion; for news that something of the kind was
intended had leaked out; and Mr. HEALY'S subsequent allusion to it as "a
dramatic skedaddle" was felt to be justified.
_Thursday, March 8th._--I should have thought that the Dardanelles Report,
which everyone is reading, contained enough sensations to satisfy the most
_outrée_ taste. But Sir CHARLES HOBHOUSE is still anxious to know the real
meaning of the tantalizing asterisks which occur here and there in it, and
wants a day to discuss the matter. Mr. BONAR LAW did not absolutely refuse,
but hoped that when his right hon. friend had examined the Report he would
forgo his desire for further information. It may safely be said that the
omitted passages, whatever they are, could hardly alter the public verdict
on the extraordinary notions of conducting a war which seem to have
prevailed in the Cabinet of which Sir CHARLES HOBHOUSE was himself a
member.
The determining factor in the inception of the Dardanelles affair seems to
have been the disastrous confidence of the then First Lord of the Admiralty
in the 15-inch guns of the _Queen Elizabeth_. The outcome recalls a verse
from a song popular when Master WINSTON was in petticoats:--
"I joined the Naval Demon-strat-i-on,
But we never fired so much as a gun,
And the Turk he laughed and said, 'Oh, what fun!
It's all on account of Eliza!'"
* * * * *
Distressing Sequel to Early Marriage.
"An exciting scene on Waterloo Bridge was described at Bow-street
yesterday when Lydia Wilderspin, aged 2, married, was charged with
attempting suicide."--_Illustrated Sunday Herald._
* * * * *
"RANK AND FILE.